Woman reaches plea deal in armed home invasion case

A 27-year-old Grand Rapids woman who brought her young children to an armed home invasion involving her husband has entered a plea in the case.

Rebecca Kay Morrell pleaded no contest this morning as charged in Livingston County Circuit Court to first-degree home invasion and five counts of unlawful imprisonment for waiting in the family vehicle while her husband and two friends burst into a home in the 1600 block of North Hughes Road, south of M-59, on June 10. The men held five people at gunpoint while Morrell communicated with them via a walkie talkie.

Morrell was initially charged with armed robbery, but she entered a no contest plea to unarmed robbery, according to Livingston County Circuit Court records.

A no contest plea is not an admission of guilt, but is treated as such as sentencing, which is set for May 7 in Howell.

One co-defendant, Cody James DeBruyn, of Shelbyville, told authorities that Morrell was their “getaway driver,” while her husband, Ronald Johnny-Wayne Morrell said at his sentencing hearing that his “wife was never intended to be the lookout or talking back and forth on the radio.”

At an August hearing, a Livingston County sheriff’s detective sergeant testified that DeBruyn, 18, told police Ronald Morrell, 39, and Richard J Quam, 29, discussed the need for $50,000 to start a business and that he threw out the victim’s name as someone they could rob because he had money and drugs. The officer said DeBruyn indicated the three men immediately started “gearing up,” which included grabbing camouflage clothing, guns and knives and placing them in the Morrell family’s Envoy.

The four co-defendants along with the Morrell couple’s two young children then drove to Oceola Township where the men broke into the victims’ home.

The victims testified at the August hearing that they heard a woman’s voice ask if the perimeter was secured, but they could not identify the woman because they did not see her.

During the incident, the intruders took a wallet, a purse, a cellphone and a gun. A gun also was fired and the bullet was later found in the kitchen where one victim was hiding and a second victim suffered damage to his teeth when one of the intruders struck him.

Ronald Morrell was sentenced in April to a total of 32-60 years in prison while DeBruyn, of Shelbyville, was sentenced in March to a total of 22-40 years in prison. Both men were sentenced on 26 counts, including home invasion, larceny in a building, unlawful imprisonment, felonious assault and using a firearm to commit those crimes.

Quam, also of Grand Rapids, earlier entered a plea and was sentenced in February to a total of 15-40 years in prison for 28 counts, which mirrored the other defendants’ convictions.